F1 on Channel 4

[CABC]

speedking31 said:

Please put the car numbers on the cars where they can be seen from the in car shots. I don't know all the helmet colours to be able to differentiate between drivers. Please put the team names on the position tables, a stripe of colour where several of them are very similar is not sufficient for me. Even a couple of characters like the drivers abbreviations would be better.

yes, like Hamilton's "6".
you'd have thought somebody would have thought of that.

[rdjohn]

durbster said:

F1 has never tried to do anything innovative in its coverage. Remember how reluctant they were to broadcast in HD, even 500 years after other sports started doing so?

If you watch motorsport in Autralia or the US and it's years ahead and you often see them trying out new things to improve the coverage. As always, F1 fans get the absolute minimum from their sport.

Channel 4 are by far the most creative force in British Television these days but I fear they'll always be constrained by the FOM.

Don't mind Steve Jones. He seems prepared to work hard like Jake Humphrey did so I think he'll be OK.

Ben Edwards is probably the best commentator F1 has ever had for me.

I quite like the music over the closing titles is something different from wailing heavy-metal guitars

[swisstoni]

I'd imagine a noob would have a hell of a time working out what's going on from watching the FOM coverage.
The stupid ticker on the bottom of the screen that always seems to be displaying places 13-17 or something and represents drivers with 3 letters - jeez.

[rdjohn]

Their viewing figures were well down on Sunday, but still the most popular program.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/04/chann...

[patmahe]

swisstoni said:

I'd imagine a noob would have a hell of a time working out what's going on from watching the FOM coverage.
The stupid ticker on the bottom of the screen that always seems to be displaying places 13-17 or something and represents drivers with 3 letters - jeez.

Actually thats a fair point, if you don't already know the drivers names, how are you meant to know, never mind the tyre rules during qualifying and race selection. DRS, ERS and KERS don't help, fuel flow rates etc... its fine for those of us who have watched these things come into the sport but how is anyone who new to the sport supposed to understand it unless they dedicate themselves to learning it.

Maybe there should be a welcome to F1 page on Formula1.com or similar to explain how things work over a race weekend? Or they could just simplify the rules a bit. Either way for such a technologically advanced sport, formula one has failed utterly to embrace the social media or even the internet generation its not like it hasn't been around for a long time at this stage.

[swisstoni]

patmahe said:

swisstoni said:

I'd imagine a noob would have a hell of a time working out what's going on from watching the FOM coverage.
The stupid ticker on the bottom of the screen that always seems to be displaying places 13-17 or something and represents drivers with 3 letters - jeez.

Actually thats a fair point, if you don't already know the drivers names, how are you meant to know, never mind the tyre rules during qualifying and race selection. DRS, ERS and KERS don't help, fuel flow rates etc... its fine for those of us who have watched these things come into the sport but how is anyone who new to the sport supposed to understand it unless they dedicate themselves to learning it.

Maybe there should be a welcome to F1 page on Formula1.com or similar to explain how things work over a race weekend? Or they could just simplify the rules a bit. Either way for such a technologically advanced sport, formula one has failed utterly to embrace the social media or even the internet generation its not like it hasn't been around for a long time at this stage.

Well they may already do such things, but it really needs to be possible to look at the live feed and see the top few places at all times at least.

[entropy]

patmahe said:

Actually thats a fair point, if you don't already know the drivers names, how are you meant to know, never mind the tyre rules during qualifying and race selection. DRS, ERS and KERS don't help, fuel flow rates etc... its fine for those of us who have watched these things come into the sport but how is anyone who new to the sport supposed to understand it unless they dedicate themselves to learning it.

Google/search engines

I envy the generation today. BBC's coverage was st compared to what we have now or unless you had Eurosport. When I became interested there intricacies like pre-qualifying, quali tyres, Goodyear's A,B,C,D tyres, active suspension.

[Eric Mc]

I could never get my head around for what races drivers had to drop their points.

[Mr_Thyroid]

swisstoni said:

I'd imagine a noob would have a hell of a time working out what's going on from watching the FOM coverage.
The stupid ticker on the bottom of the screen that always seems to be displaying places 13-17 or something and represents drivers with 3 letters - jeez.

And it seemed to spend aged telling us how many stops everyone had done (it was one)...I want to know the gaps!

And sometimes it shows gaps between each driver, sometimes it shows the gap to the leader. So I have to try and work out which - is Hamilton 11 secs behind Rosberg or 11 behind Kimi - just pick one and stick with it.

[Dr Z]

Mr_Thyroid said:

swisstoni said:

I'd imagine a noob would have a hell of a time working out what's going on from watching the FOM coverage.
The stupid ticker on the bottom of the screen that always seems to be displaying places 13-17 or something and represents drivers with 3 letters - jeez.

And it seemed to spend aged telling us how many stops everyone had done (it was one)...I want to know the gaps!

And sometimes it shows gaps between each driver, sometimes it shows the gap to the leader. So I have to try and work out which - is Hamilton 11 secs behind Rosberg or 11 behind Kimi - just pick one and stick with it.

I totally agree with this. They really should have a more permanent graphic monitoring the gap to leader for first 5 positions. Was struggling with this in the last race.

[andyps]

patmahe said:

Actually thats a fair point, if you don't already know the drivers names, how are you meant to know, never mind the tyre rules during qualifying and race selection. DRS, ERS and KERS don't help, fuel flow rates etc... its fine for those of us who have watched these things come into the sport but how is anyone who new to the sport supposed to understand it unless they dedicate themselves to learning it.

Maybe there should be a welcome to F1 page on Formula1.com or similar to explain how things work over a race weekend? Or they could just simplify the rules a bit. Either way for such a technologically advanced sport, formula one has failed utterly to embrace the social media or even the internet generation its not like it hasn't been around for a long time at this stage.

Highlighted the point that would make the most sense. For example, why do they have to run two different tyres in each race? I would love to see the option of a driver doing the whole race on one set of tyres if they thought it might benefit them - really opening up strategies but less regulation.

As for social media, it is just Bernie being short sighted and ignorant. He reckons it is only older people that can afford the products promoted through F1, but without new, younger, viewers after he has gone there won't be any viewers because they haven't been approached through the media they use - it certainly isn't TV.

[CraigyMc]

andyps said:

but without new, younger, viewers after he has gone there won't be any viewers

CVC coulnd't give a st about that as they won't be the owners by then - the F1 rights are on the market and have been for quite some time.
Bernie answers to CVC because they are his bosses, being the owners of the company he works for.

It's not Bernie you should direct any anger/resentment at. It's the American pension funds that own most of CVC and demand returns in the short term.

[Europa1]

CraigyMc said:

CVC coulnd't give a st about that as they won't be the owners by then - the F1 rights are on the market and have been for quite some time.
Bernie answers to CVC because they are his bosses, being the owners of the company he works for.

It's not Bernie you should direct any anger/resentment at. It's the American pension funds that own most of CVC and demand returns in the short term.

Or maybe Max Mosley, for selling off the commercial rights in the first place (at what, in hindsight, appears to be a ridiculously cheap price).

[CABC]

Europa1 said:

Or maybe Max Mosley, for selling off the commercial rights in the first place (at what, in hindsight, appears to be a ridiculously cheap price).

the thanks is in Panama?

[AndrewEH1]

Well Steve Jones did a very good job of it today, much improved from Australia (not that he was that bad to begin with).

[funkyrobot]

I just don't understand the channel 4 app.

I'm trying to watch today's race, but it won't let me stream it. It keeps trying to download. I can watch the quali, but can't watch the race.

A few weeks ago, they didn't even have the race available on Sunday night until really late.

It's a shower of st really. Making it so hard to see the formula one if you don't have live tv.

[Flooble]

Worth persevering for this one, more overtaking in this race than in entire seasons back in the Schumacher years ...

[Chrisgr31]

funkyrobot said:

I just don't understand the channel 4 app.

I'm trying to watch today's race, but it won't let me stream it. It keeps trying to download. I can watch the quali, but can't watch the race.

They did tweet earlier that there was an issue with the app that they were attempting to fix. May still be broken?

[John D.]

Mr_Thyroid said:

BarbaricAvatar said:

I don't like Paul di Resta, i hope he's not involved. He spent his whole F1 career whinging and blaming other people and the few TV appearances he's made since proved that he has a charisma deficiency.

I reckon any recent F1 driver would do a good job. Of course when they're 'moaning' about their own bad races they may grate a little but they are all trained and have a lot of experience in communicating to all levels of people. They have a lot technical insight and most will have some good anecdotes.

I agree that Paul di Resta was a bit awkward in front of the camera in his first year in F1 but to my eyes seemed to relax and give a good account of himself thereafter.

No. He's terrible on camera. Relentlessly dull.

Chandook (sp?) is starting to grate already. Can't quite figure out why.

Really enjoying Webber.

Glad they got rid of that awful dubstep noise they played on each ad break for the first race.

Thank fk Suzy Perry has gone. So glad she's now shown up on my MotoGP coverage. Silver lining being I think she has replaced the blonde bird who talks like Jonathan Ross (What a gweat wace/ Valentino Wossi/ etc).

[AlexS]

andyps said:

Highlighted the point that would make the most sense. For example, why do they have to run two different tyres in each race? I would love to see the option of a driver doing the whole race on one set of tyres if they thought it might benefit them - really opening up strategies but less regulation.

As for social media, it is just Bernie being short sighted and ignorant. He reckons it is only older people that can afford the products promoted through F1, but without new, younger, viewers after he has gone there won't be any viewers because they haven't been approached through the media they use - it certainly isn't TV.

You need to ask Bridgestone about the 2 tyre rule. As for opening strategies up, it would have the opposite effect. All teams would just pick the best tyre for the weekend and use that.